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Enchanting Items
There are many ways for items to become magical as outlined in GURPS Thaumatology. GURPS Religion provides an another alternative method. Standard Method Regardless of the method the effective minimum skill required for each spell to be enchanted is 15. A roll of 16 is always a failure (quirking the item), and a roll of 17-18 is always a critical failure (destroying the item) – even if effective skill is 16+ "To perform enchantments, the caster and any assistants must know both the Enchant spell and the specific spell being put on the item at an effective skill of 15 or better. Unskilled spectators cannot contribute energy to an enchantment."GURPS Magic 16 The chance each spell will succeed with no quirks is 95.4% with not critically failing being 98.1%. However the more spells enchanted into an item the lower those chances become. The formulas are: No quirks: .954^number of spells Item not destroyed: .981^number of spells. This is why trying to create a Powerstone with a capacity of 15 (15 castings of Powerstone) has a 75% of happening (.981^15) while the odds it has no quirks is only 49% (.954^15) There are two ways to do "standard" Ceremonial Magic enchantment: Quick and Dirty and Slow and Sure. Quick and Dirty This allows for the fast creation of magic items but has high energy requirements. It takes one hour per 100 points of energy required (round up) and the energy is spent at the end of the enchantment. The caster and assistants can each have a powerstone as well as spend HP (given it lowers skill this is counter productive). However, the caster is at -1 to skill for each assistant and if his effective skill drops below 15 the enchantment will not work. At a practical level the "standard" circle is six enchanters which each enchanter providing 10 points for a total of 60 points with the main Enchanter having a skill of 20 (20-5=15). This means items requiring 100+ points will use the Slow and Sure Method Slow and Sure The low energy requirements is off set by the amount of time needed. It calculated in mage-days (a full eight-hour workday for one mage that produces 1 energy point) All members of the enchanting must be present for the entire process. Any missed day require two to make up and the entire project fails if a mage is lost. Syntactic Enchantment This is the Syntactic Magic version of enchantment and requires Symbol Drawing. "Each Word has an associated energy cost; a syntactic spell’s cost is equal to the cost of its verb plus the cost of its noun. Control spells cost an amount equal to the cost for Control plus double the cost of the noun; Transform spells cost an amount equal to the cost for Transform plus the cost for both nouns."GURPS Magic 203 Enchantment through Age * Amplification: attracted similar energies from the ambient mana * Significance: gains power from its symbolic value and the psychic import of events in which it's involved. Enchantment through Deeds Items gain power by being used in great events. It is faster then Significance Enchantment * Naming Objects: the naming of an item in of itself can imbue an enchantment. * Traumatic Enchantment Devotional Enchantment Magic is an outgrowth of prayer, religious study, or meditation. With Devotional Enchantment a wizard can "store up" energy. While Enchanting an item is insanely quick, usually completed in a day or less, it involves Symbol Magic and the enchanter must succeed on all the skills involved or the enchantment fails entirely. If the enchantment fails the enchanter cannot retry until all of the skills associated with the failed rolls are raised. If the enchantment critically fails anywhere along the process the enchantment cannot ever be reattempted. Magic as Advantages This works best for Enchantment through Age or Deeds. Base cost is 200 hours of effort for one character point of improvement. Clerical Enchantment Clerics use Consecrate which can only be cast on items in a Very High Sanctity area but can be cast on an area of any Sanctity level. It has a counterpart called Desecrate which can render certain items powerless. Clerical magic items fall into the categories Consecrated Objects (holy water is on example of this), Sacred Vessels (items that contain a mixture of the cleric's and deity's power but can only be used by the cleric who created it), Holy Objects (the clerical equivalent of magery based magic items but they can only be used by clerics of that deity), and Objects of Power (clerical magical item truly touched by the deity.) Objects of Power Objects of Power come in two types: Minor (creates an area of High Sanctity within a given radius, no matter the true Sanctity of the area) and Major (Very High Sanctity within a given radius, affecting the area so strongly that even after the object has moved on, the location will remain an area of High Sanctity for 1 week per day the object was in the location). The default area is a 5-hex radius. Objects of Power have a base Power of 25 To use Christianity as an example the Ark of the Covenant would be a Major Object of Power while the Grail and Spear would more likely be Minor Objects of Power. References * GURPS Thaumatology 54, 110-113 * GURPS Religion 104-108 Category:Concepts Category:Thaumatology